USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Early Philadelphia; its people, life and progress > Part 19
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A curious connection which the churches had with drinkables began when the Baptists sought refuge from the Presbyterians in 1698 and worshipped in Morris' brew- house until 1707. In 1808 the Insurance Company of North America had a policy on the over stock of brandy
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and sugar from Stephen Girard's warehouse on Water Street, which was stored in the cellar of the German Catholic Church, of which he was a member, at Sixth and Spruce Streets. Not so very long ago the cellar of the commodious meeting house of the Society of Friends at Fourth and Green Streets was filled with Perot's ale from which the thrifty meeting received a sufficient revenue, we may be sure, as well as a convenient source of supply for the refreshment of the Hicksite Yearly Meeting held there until the late fifties.
Anthony Morris took his son of like name into partner- ship with him and upon his death in 1721 left the business to him. The son had been indentured for seven years at the age of fourteen to learn the business in 1695 and must have been well qualified to continue its successful career. He was both Councilman and Assemblyman and built another malt-house and brewery in the rear of a lot on Second Street between Arch and Race Streets.
Next came a son, another Anthony, who built a large establishment at the corner of Dock and Pear Streets in 1745, where there were several springs which Timothy Matlack says made the beer surpass any in the City. His sons, Anthony and Thomas, kept on at their grandfather's place on Second near Arch Streets until Anthony was killed at the Battle of Trenton, on July 3, 1777. A brother, " Captain Sam," then joined Thomas, but from all we know of his busy life as Captain of the First Troop, Governor of the "State in Schuylkill," fox-hunter and useful citizen, he did not give much time to his brewery and after two years withdrew from the partnership. Thomas Morris' sons, Thomas and Joseph, continued the line. Their father was a founder of Westtown Friends' Board- ing School and a manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital
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and Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Joseph Morris left his part to his brother Thomas upon his death, and the business went on without interruption in North Second Street. Now the Perots entered into the hitherto unbroken line of Morrises through the marriage of Francis Perot to Eliza- beth Morris, daughter of Thomas.
Elliston and John Perot settled in the West India trade on North Water Street, next door to Stephen Girard, in 1785. They came of French Huguenot stock, from the only survivor of nineteen condemned men who were placed in separate cells and the doors walled up for twenty-one days without food or water. In the case of James Perot a hen had a nest in a dark corner of his cell and came daily through a small hole and laid an egg which nourished him until his time was up.
Francis was the son of Elliston Perot and was appren- ticed to Thomas Morris for six years to learn to be a brewer. In addition to his work he had to pay his em- ployer a fee of one thousand dollars for the privilege. It is needless to say that there were no labour unions or child- labour laws in those days. Francis had to carry ninety bushels of malt daily on his back to the third floor, where it was ground, and then carry it one story higher. Three mornings a week he had to get up at one o'clock to brew. After his apprenticeship he began business at Downing- town and in 1818 purchased the brewery and malt-house on the south side of Vine Street between Third and Fourth. After his marriage to Elizabeth Morris he frequently went to her father's place on Second Street to brew for him and finally he succeeded to the business. His cream beer and table beer was known far and wide.
Francis Perot erected one of the first stationary steam
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engines in America at his brewery on Vine Street. It was in constant operation for over fifty years and still leads an honourable existence as an historic relic.
T. Morris Perot, son of Francis and Elizabeth, gradu- ated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1849 and began a wholesale drug business. After a disastrous fire he and his partner, Edward H. Ogden went into part- nership with his father at 310 Vine Street under the firm name of Francis Perot's Sons, Maltsters. Two new malt- houses were soon started and in 1882 their business had increased to such an extent that they bought a malt-house at Oswego, New York, to be nearer the Canadian barley fields. The firm name became the Francis Perot's Sons Malting Company in 1887 and continues so to-day under the care of Elliston Perot and T. Morris Perot, Jr. T. Morris Perot was a public-spirited man and for forty years was the president of the Mercantile Library Company, at one time the largest library in the United States. He was also for over thirty years president of the Woman's Medi- cal College of Pennsylvania, the first woman's medical college in America. His partner, Edward HI. Ogden, was also a graduate of the College of Pharmacy and was interested in the upbuilding of Swarthmore College.
The business has grown beyond the dreams of its founders and the old buildings have long been abandoned for lack of capacity to handle it. Although the malt-house is now at Buffalo, New York, the office of the company remains in the old city which saw its foundation.
THE FRANKLIN PRINTING COMPANY
LTHOUGH Benjamin Franklin was fond of calling himself merely a " printer " to his dying day, it is not so generally known that his printing business is flourishing among us still. Founded in 1728, it has continued without a break and still bears the name of its originator. It hardly seems necessary to relate the story of Franklin and his trade which has been so often repeated.
In 1740 Franklin relinquished his active interest and David Hall, for four years in his employ, was made the active partner under the firm name of Franklin and Hall, Hall agreeing to pay Franklin £1000 for 18 years, which was equivalent to $2660 a year. David Hall was reared as a printer in Edinburgh and entered Franklin's employ in 1744. He was an industrious workman and a benevolent and worthy man. He conducted the "Gazette" prudently, gained it a wide circulation, and made the print- ing business very lucrative. In May of 1766 William Sellers entered the firm. He was a printer from London who had a book and stationery store in Arch Street between Second and Third and was a well-known and respected citi- zen. Upon Hall's death in 1772 his two sons, William and David, Jr., succeeded him and the name of Hall and Sellers was continued at 51 High Street (now 135 Market Street), where years before Franklin and Meredith had joined forces. Toward the end of the eighteenth century there were 31 printing presses in the City and suburbs, printing four daily and two semi-weekly papers, one of them in the French language, and two weekly journals, one of them in the German language. But Hall and Sellers, with their solid foundation, more than held their own.
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About 1810 the name became Hall and Pierie, William Sellers having died in 1804 and George W. Pierie having been taken in. At this time there were 153 presses in the City and 60 engravers.
About 1815 Pierie dropped out and Samuel C. Atkin- son took his place, so that the firm name became Hall and Atkinson until 1821, when Hall died and Charles Alex- ander entered the firm. This marked an epoch in American journalism for Atkinson and Alexander determined to build with new vigour on the venerable foundation of the " Pennsylvania Gazette " and began the publication of a new weekly paper to which they gave the name of the " Saturday Evening Post." The first number was issued August 4, 1821. The paper had a " Poet's Corner," a story column and printed some news, foreign and domes- tic, but eschewed all politics. The editor was Thomas Cottrell Clarke and under his leadership the paper gained a wide circulation throughout the United States. In 1827, after 90 years in one locality, the plant was moved to 112 Chestnut Street, between Second and Third.
In 1828 Samuel C. Atkinson became the sole proprietor and in 1833 moved to 36 Carter's Alley, where he remained until 1840. Then John S. Du Solle and George R. Graham bought the business and moved it to Third and Chestnut Streets in the second floor of the old " Ledger " Building. Charles J. Peterson soon succeeded Du Solle and the firm continued as George R. Graham and Co. until 1843 when all was sold to Samuel D. Patterson & Co. Only five years elapsed before Edmund Deacon and Henry Peterson became proprietors and put new life into the publishing and printing of the old firm. The plant was moved to 66 South Third Street, adjoining the Girard Bank, where Deacon managed the business and Peterson
18
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edited the "Saturday Evening Post." 100,000 copies of the paper were distributed every week, many of them going into the Southern States. The policy of eschewing all politics had proved a profitable one but Henry Peterson burned with the fever of abolition and the temptation to use the powerful instrument in his hands proved too strong to resist. Breaking away from the settled policy of the past he published a violent anti-slavery article and the result was effective and instantaneous. The papers came back in basketfuls from indignant subscribers and the doom of the " Post " for many years was sounded. Its publication was, however, actually continued and after passing through other hands it was bought by the Curtis Publishing Com- pany in 1898.
In the early seventies Henry Peterson retired and after Edmund Deacon's death in 1877 E. Stanley Hart suc- ceeded to the business as the Franklin Printing House and in 1889 the present Franklin Printing Company was incorporated with a large building and modern plant at 514 Ludlow Street.
Franklin's old press is still in the possession of the com- pany, although its appearance has changed. Some years ago it was borrowed for an exhibition and while there the precious old finger-marks and scars of its unpainted wood- work, many of them left there by its illustrious first owner, were covered over by a nice fresh coat of green paint so that it should look clean and tidy. The horror and indig- nation of the present owners upon its return can better be imagined than described.
SHIPS AND SHIPPING
WALK along Philadelphia's river- front to-day will not greatly impress one with the extent of its shipping and there is always rather a despair- ing note, tinged with anger, in its mention by the public press. In the building of ships, however, an alto- gether different note is struck and the Delaware is now oftener than ever called the "Clyde of America."
Gabriel Thomas tells us in 1697 of the large and com- modious wharves and of Robert Turner's ship-yard. The ship-yards in Colonial times occupied the river front from High to Callowhill Streets. Bartholomew Penrose had a ship-yard on the river at the foot of High or Market Street in which William Penn and Robert Trent were partners. Prior to 1725 twenty vessels might be seen on the stocks at one time and the clearances were numerous for that day. The City had by the middle of the century many wealthy merchants engaged in foreign trade and in 1771 the ton- nage was 50,000 entered and cleared. At the time of the Revolution Philadelphia was the first city in naval archi- tecture. Among characteristic enterprises were huge rafts built for the shipment of a great quantity of timber. The " Baron Renfrew " of upward of 5000 tons, made a safe passage to England with such a cargo. The adjacent iron works on the Schuylkill aided much in the building of ships and these superior advantages caused many of the naval vessels constructed for the defense of the Colonies to be built here. The flourishing commerce of the port was swept away by the war but revived after peace was declared. In 1793 the tonnage built in Philadelphia doubled that at any other port in the United States, and the exports ex-
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ceeded those of New England and New York, and indeed were one-fourth of the whole Union. Thomas Godfrey invented the quadrant and Franklin made many improve- ments in the models of sailing vessels, among them the water-tight compartments now deemed essential.
Michael Royll had a yard at the Drawbridge over Dock Creek, Charles West owned extensive yards at Vine Street, Parrock at Race Street and so on. The bowsprits of the ships extended across Front Street to the eaves of West's house, indeed many still living can remember a similar scene on Delaware Avenue. Carved figure-heads were very popular in the early days of shipping and the work of William Rush excited wide admiration at home and abroad.
The first ships for the American Navy were built by Joshua Humphreys in Southwark below Old Swede's Church. Later the United States established a yard at Front and Federal Streets, where were built the United States and the Constitution, equal to anything afloat at that time. The Pennsylvania was launched here in 1837 in the presence of 100,000 people and a multitude of ships in the river. She was entirely of wood and the largest in the world, her masts being 250 feet high. From the jib-boom to the end of the spanker-boom was 375 feet and the main yard was 120 feet in length. She had three gun decks and 140 guns.
Thomas P. Cope was the greatest ship-owner, and most of his ships were built in Philadelphia. He established in 1821 the first regular line of packet-ships between the City and Liverpool. The names of Vaughan and of Eyre are the most prominent among the early ship-builders of Ken- sington, but of course there is none more widely famous than that of Cramp, who began building ships in 1830 after
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5
Birch, 1:00
BUILDING THE FRIGATE "PHILADELPHIA" AT HUMPHREY'S YARD IN SOUTHWARK
Birch, 1800
VIEW OF THE CITY FROM THE TREATY ELM AT SHACKAMAXON STREET
FOOT OF MARKET STREET
Birch, 1800
ARCH STREET WHARF; THE FIRST STERN-WHEEL STEAMBOAT RAN FROM HERE
SHIPS AND SHIPPING
an apprenticeship with Samuel Grice, the most celebrated ship-builder of the period.
John Fitch, a watch and clock-maker in Philadelphia, ran the first steam boat on the Delaware in 1788, after a design he made in 1785. Paddles, working within a frame- work, propelled the little boat to Burlington, New Jersey, and afterward to Trenton, returning the same day and moving at the rate of eight miles an hour. His first excur- sion indeed was on the 1st of May, 1787, but he was ahead of his time and it was left for Fulton to perfect the design and secure the glory. Much help in Fitch's design came, no doubt, from Oliver Evans, a blacksmith of Philadelphia, who proclaimed in 1781 that he could drive wagons and mills by steam. He prophesied that the time would come when people would travel by steam wagons moving at the rate of twenty miles an hour and that railways would be laid on paths of broken stone to travel by night as well as by day and that boats will be propelled by steam. Friends were too conservative and careful in those days to take up the visionary schemes of these young men, ideas destined to revolutionize travel in the years to come, and so the necessary capital to promote their plans was not to be had in the Quaker City.
A story characteristic of the temperament and training of early Quakers is told of Captain Whitall whose ship lay in foreign waters frequented by pirates. Spying a hard- looking fellow coming up a rope over the side one night the worthy Friend taking a knife remarked, " Friend, if thee wants that rope thee may have it "-and cut the rope.
THE DANCING ASSEMBLY
N every community people of similar interests and of blood relationship are drawn together for pleasant inter- course and as these natural conditions are emphasized by refinement, their association becomes more rigid and exclusive. Perhaps there is no com- munity where this has been more continuously the prac- tice than in Philadelphia and the most widely known and principal indication is the Assembly Ball or City Dancing Assembly as it was first called.
In 1738 there existed a dancing class conducted by Theobald Hackett, who taught " all sorts of fashionable English and French dances, after the newest and politest manner practised in London, Dublin and Paris, and to give young ladies, gentlemen and children the most graceful carriage in dancing and genteel behaviour in company that can possibly be given by any dancing master whatever." Later, Kennet taught dancing and fencing, also John Ormsby from London " in the newest taste now practised in Europe, at Mr. Foster's house in Market Street oppo- site the Horse & Dray."
Naturally the Quakers looked askance at this frivolity and Samuel Foulke published an indignant article about Kennet's notice, saying, " I am surprised at his audacity and brazen impudence in giving those detestable vices those high encomiums. They be proved so far from accomplish- ments that they are diabolical." This was commendable vigour at any rate and in the first assembly lists we find no Pembertons, Logans, Fishers, Lloyds, Whartons, Coxes, Rawles, Morrises, Peningtons, Emlens, or Biddles.
The clergy approved, however, and surely religion
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should direct its youthful spirits in their happiness. So the dancing assembly began in 1748 and was held once a fortnight at Andrew Hamilton's house and store, ten- anted by Mr. Inglis, who conducted the balls. This was the only place capable of accommodating so many persons and was at Hamilton's Wharf on Water Street near the Drawbridge between Walnut and Dock Streets, where ladies repaired in full dress on horseback. The first man- agers were John Swift, John Wallace, John Inglis and Lynford Lardner. The subscription was forty shillings, levied upon the gentlemen, and included the lady who accompanied him. Tickets for strangers on the same con- ditions were to be had upon application to the managers at seven shillings, sixpence. These included all the ex- penses for the entertainment, which soon was held every Thursday evening from January until May, commencing at six o'clock in the evening and not exceeding midnight. Notices were published in the newspapers of which this, from the " Pennsylvania Journal," in 1771, is an example:
" The Assembly will be opened this evening, and as the re- ceiving of money at the door has been found extremely inconveni- ent, the Managers think it necessary to give the public notice that no person will be admitted without a ticket from the directors which (through the application of a subscriber ) may be had of either of the Managers."
In 1772 the meeting place was the Freemasons' Lodge and later the City Tavern, then Oeller's Hotel, on Chestnut above Sixth Street, the Mansion House on Third Street, at Washington Hall on the same street and at a hall on Library Street. In 1802 Francis' Hotel on Market Street was chosen. Rooms were provided for cards with fire, candles, tables and cards. Square dances
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were in vogue and the ladies arriving first were given places in the first set, the rest being arranged in the order of arrival, the ladies drawing for places. Mothers watched with care the movements of their daughters from an en- closure at one end of the room, says a writer in 1817, but no such assemblage of matrons is mentioned in earlier times.
Rev. Andrew Burnaby, who visited Philadelphia between 1759 and 1760, was very favourably impressed with our belles. Here is his comment:
" The women are exceedingly handsome and polite. They are naturally sprightly and fond of pleasure, and upon the whole, are much more agreeable and accomplished than the men. Since their intercourse with the English officers they are greatly improved and without flattery many of them would not make bad figures even in the first assemblies of Europe. Their amusements are princi- pally dancing in the winter, and in the summer forming parties of pleasure upon the Schuylkill and in the country. There is a society of sixteen ladies and as many gentlemen, called the Fishing Company, who meet once in a fortnight upon the Schuylkill. They have a very pleasant room erected in a romantic situation on the banks of that river, where they generally dine and drink tea. There are several pretty walks around it, and some wild and rugged rocks, which, together with the water and fine groves that adorn the banks, form a most beautiful and picturesque scene. There are boats and fishing-tackle of all sorts, and the company divert themselves with walking, fishing, going upon the water, dancing, singing, or conversing, just as they please. The ladies wear a uniform, and they appear with great ease and advantage from the neatness and simplicity of it. The first and most dis- tinguished people of the colony are of this society and it is very advantageous to a stranger to be introduced to it, as he thereby gets acquainted with the best and most respectable company in Philadelphia. In winter, when there is snow on the ground, it is usual to make what they call sleighing-parties, or to go upon it in sledges."
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The rules were quite strict and one at least of the spirited belles revolted in 1782 by " standing up in a set not her own," and drawing the others of the set into re- bellion, thus bringing on a rupture between the gentlemen and the managers. The sprightly William Black (of the Virginia Commission to treat with the Indians in 1744) praises the beauty and accomplishments of Miss Hetty Levy and Miss Mollie Stamper, afterwards Mrs. William Bingham. Miss Rebecca Franks was the reigning belle during the British occupation particularly, sharing the honours with fair Willings, Shippens and Chews. Joseph Shippen's " Lines written in an Assembly Room " was one of the frequent graceful poetical outbursts of the time. He speaks of " Fair charming Swift," referring to the eldest daughter of John Swift, afterwards Mrs. Livings- ton, "lovely White," the sister of Bisby White and after- wards Mrs. Robert Morris, and "Sweet, Smiling, fair M'Call;" Polly Franks and Sally Coxe also came in for their share of admiration and Mrs. Jekyll, granddaughter of Edward Shippen.
By 1765 some Quaker names appear, such as Mifflin, Fishbourne, Dickinson, Galloway, Nixon, Powell and Cadwalader, and soon some arrivals from distant parts, such as Ingersolls, Montgomerys, Sergeants, Tilghmans, Wisters and Markoes. Then more familiar families of Clymer, Hazlehurst, Evans, Burd, Lewis, McMurtrie, McPherson, Sims, Ross, Watmough, Biddle, Wharton and Meade. Dancing masters became numerous and the youth of the town with affluent merchant fathers took with avidity to the increase in polite amusements so different from the scanty entertainment of the early days.
The Assemblies were discontinued during the Revolu- tion, although there was an increase in gayety, especially
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in Tory circles, during the British occupation. The pa- triots, however, were engaged in a serious business and their resources as well as their lives were risked in the great adventure of their country. After the war aristocratic feelings were somewhat rudely jarred, although intensified in some quarters. When Squire Hillegas' daughter was married to a jeweler she was deprived of her place in the old Assembly and indeed another Assembly, not so fastidi- ous, was formed, which sent an invitation to President Washington. When both balls came on the same night the President went to the newer and danced with a mechanic's pretty daughter. Mrs. John Adams writes frequently of the Assemblies during President Washing- ton's administration and says "the company is of the best kind," and the ladies more beautiful than she had seen at foreign courts. Mrs. Bingham is mentioned, her aunt, Mrs. Samuel Powell, born Elizabeth Willing, a younger set of Chews, the Redmans, Bonds, Miss Wilhelmina Smith, Miss Sally Mckean, Mrs. Walter Stewart, and Mrs. Henry Clymer. Mrs. Adams speaks of the gayety and prodigality of Philadelphia living in the same vein as General Greene who called the luxury of Boston " an infant babe " to that of the Quaker City.
In 1803 the first ball was held in Mr. Haines' room in the new Shakespeare Building, at Sixth and Chestnut Streets, and afterwards at Francis' Hotel, occupying the Morris and Washington mansion on Market between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Lack of harmony prevailed in this year and a new Assembly was organized and balls held over Barry's furniture store in Second Street. Subse- quently balls were held at the Exchange Coffee House, formerly Mr. Bingham's house, on South Third Street, and in the City Hotel at Mr. McCall's old house, Second
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and Union Streets. Squabbling and loss of social prestige continued to such an extent that in 1815 the balls were discontinued. There is little wonder if the following effusion, which appeared in the " Fashionable Trifler," is correct :
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